


Do I Wanna Know?

by Thisisarealtagwhy



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Angst, Bromance, First Meetings, Gen, Healing, Not as humorous as i intended sorry, not team Cap friendly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-12
Updated: 2020-02-12
Packaged: 2021-02-28 05:53:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,127
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22679035
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thisisarealtagwhy/pseuds/Thisisarealtagwhy
Summary: The first time Rhodey met Tony, it was certainly memorable, after all, not everyone will try and sleep with you and become your friend after you rescue them from their creepy bar date.(Couple of Tony & Rhodey's shenanigans)
Relationships: James "Rhodey" Rhodes & Tony Stark
Comments: 4
Kudos: 132
Collections: Best Team Iron Man





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [dnky](https://archiveofourown.org/users/dnky/gifts).



> HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!! hopefully this can fulfill your rhodey and tony shenanigans prompt, i really be out here struggling to write humour so have this amalgamation of angst and humour. i split them because my thoughts were all over the place lmao
> 
> ANYWAY! I HOPE YOUVE HAD AN AMAZING DAY, IT'S AN HONOUR TO WORK WITH YOU AND I LOVE TALKING TO YOU, YOU'RE AMAZING AND KIND AND LOVELY, SO HOPEFULLY ENJOY!!

Rhodey has known Tony since MIT, he will never forget the moment the drunk boy had taken a few stumbling steps into a leering man’s arms before Rhodey had left his spot at the bar trying to have a quiet Thursday night.

“Whoa, you’re tall.” The drunken boy slurs, looking at Rhodey as he approaches.

“And you’re short.” Rhodey replies, keeping his eyes on the man the drunken boy is clinging to.

The other man stares at him, something hard and angry reflected in his flinty eyes, not that Rhodey gave a shit, he wasn’t a part of the military just for show.

“Why don’t you back off my friend, Anthony and I were just about to leave.” The man says, silken voice reflecting his sobriety.

“I think your ‘friend’ has had enough, and if you can’t look after him then I will.” Rhodey retorts.

‘Anthony’ looks like he’s starting to sober up, hazel eyes sharpening into focus. Suddenly he stumbles onto Rhodey’s chest, leans over and vomits all over the bar’s floor.

“Tony.” The other man says, voice hard and persistent.

“Hmm, I think I’ll go home with mama bear tonight, thanks for the drinks though!” In a spectacular display, Anthony loops an arm around Rhodey’s neck and gives him a strong hug.

The other man looks at them for a few moments, calculating eyes like a cat weary of losing its’ most recent prey. “See you around Tones.” He finally says, taking his queue to leave.

“Alright, Tony, I’m Rhodes, let’s get you home, where exactly do you live?”

“Hmmm.” His head lolls a little, Rhodey waits patiently. “Can’t remember.” He finally mumbles out.

Rhodey lets out a long, heart felt sigh, “Okay, here’s what’s going to happen, I’ll take you back to my house, I’ve got two roommates but they’re pretty chill, you can take my bed, and in the morning, I’ll make sure you get home, okay?”

“Mmm, that sounds good.” Tony slurs pressing his face into Rhodey’s neck.

Rhodey sighs again and calls them a taxi, making sure that Tony doesn’t pass out on the way back. Thankfully, the boy is somewhat of an octopus and has yet to unlatch. “Your mate good there?”

“Yeah, he just needs sleep and water.” Rhodey says to their taxi driver.

As soon as they pull up, Rhodey heaves Tony out of the cab, “Have you taken anything else tonight?”

He had forgotten to ask at the club, but he didn’t want this kid to overdosing on something Rhodey hadn’t known about. “Hmm, some coke, but only a pinch.” Tony assures him, pinching Rhodey’s shoulder.

“Okay, you feel fine?”

“Would be better when I’m laying down.” Tony murmurs, Rhodey huffs a laugh out.

“Alright, let’s get you to bed.”

Thankfully, he’s pretty sure his roommates are out partying, because he can’t hear anyone inside, the most difficult part of the night is getting Tony up the stairs to his room, “Come on man, you gotta help me out.”

“Sorryyyy. You should just pick me up.”

“Maybe I will.”

He does, he grasps the boy in bridal style, depositing him on his bed, he brings a glass of water in, “Before you go to sleep, have some water.”

“Why are you being so nice to me? Do you even know who I am?” Tony asks, sculling the water down.

“Am I supposed to?” He arches an eyebrow.

“Hmm, sure, makes sense.” And with that Tony falls to sleep, light snores emanating from Rhodey’s own bed, he heaves another sigh and picks up one of the spare blankets and pillows before making himself home on the lounge.

At approximately five, he awakens, blearily rubbing his eyes against the persisting tiredness, he assumes his house guest is still asleep which is why he begins making coffee for only himself, he’ll cook breakfast a little later on.

In no time at all, he can hear the stumbling noise of his unexpected night guest finally waking up, he begins to scramble the eggs like he had originally planned and fries some bacon.

“Wow, so he’s a mama bear in the kitchen too.” Tony stands on the staircase, one of Rhodey’s hoodies on his smaller frame.

“I’m living on my own, what else am I supposed to do?”

“Make someone else do it.”

Rhodey shrugs, “Doesn’t taste the same.” He eyes the boy more clearly in the morning. “How do you feel this morning?”

“Like I got hit by a train then a big flying eagle or something dropped me back onto the sidewalk.” Rhodey barks out a laugh. “Anyway, what’s the story? We fuck and then you cook me breakfast?”

Rhodey raises his patented eyebrow, “And what makes you think we fucked?”

“Well, why else would I be asleep in your bed moron.” Tony crosses his arms and raises an equally unimpressed eyebrow back.

“Because I didn’t want you to sleep on the couch, it’s way better to sleep on a bed when you’re drunk.”

“Why _wouldn’t_ you fuck me?”

“Because I don’t like men, I took you home because you were clearly too drunk to go home with that creepy dude, and I didn’t want you to wake up regretting something that happened in the heat of the moment.”

“Aww, cute.” Tony’s lip curls in derision, there’s a chance he’s being made fun of.

“So you’re telling me you’d prefer it if we had fucked last night?”

“Of course, after all, who wouldn’t want to fuck Tony Stark right?”

Rhodey pauses, spatula comically hanging in his hand, “Did you just say…. Stark?”

“Yeah, you need to get your hearing checked or something?”

“As in _the_ Tony Stark. Huh.” And he goes back to his scrambled eggs, can’t let them burn.

“That’s it? You don’t care about who I am?” Tony asks, surprise colouring his tone.

Rhodey shrugs, Mama Rhodes had instilled the importance of not judging someone just by what they look like or who they were related to. “Why should I?”

“Because I’m a rich kid who could get you anything you want in the world.”

“I don’t need it.”

Rhodey serves up the eggs, “Breakfast, your highness.”

Tony rolls his eyes, “I think this could the start of a tragic, epic friendship.”

Rhodey snorts, “Don’t get too ahead of yourself, we gotta at least do some ice-breakers first."

"Seriously? I'm wearing your hoodie and you're worried about some ice-breakers?"

"Okay whatever, forget I asked."

"Anyways I love old cars and working on them."

"I like to cook in my spare time, my mum cooked me."

Tony slings an arm around him, "See, now we're besties."

"Maybe we are." He concedes, a small grin tugging at his features.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Post civil war fluff and angst

There’s always been something off about the way the rogues treated Tony. A little too dismissive, critical of everything he did and a little flagrant about how they expended Tony’s wealth. Aside from Banner and Thor who both seemed to genuinely respect and enjoy Tony’s company.

Rhodey has known Tony for a very long time and the only people who did that were no friends of Tony, not genuine, not in the way that Tony cares for them. But Tony had seemed (mostly) happy so Rhodey had let their treatment slide (he shouldn’t have), he’d given them a second chance to make it up to Tony, to realise the unconditional love he had given them wasn’t just for the press

Their second chance has now expired, it expired the moment Steve Rogers did not stand down when it came to the accords, the fact that he hadn’t even _read_ them was absolutely ludicrous. The moment they had as such, they removed their titular role of hero and moved to – at best – vigilantes, and at worst terrorists.

Now, here Rhodey lays, honourably discharged from the air force, battered and mangled, and his best friend sitting next to his bed, bruises in every conceivable location, he was in ICU for three hours with his most trusted surgeons a few days ago, but now, instead of listening to the advice of the doctors, had discharged himself to come sit with Rhodey.

Something akin to anguish has settled deep within his bones as he stares at Tony, who has been beaten to a bloody pulp and yet here he is, with _Rhodey,_ to make sure he feels comfortable.

“Tones, look at me."

Tony’s head drags up from where he’d been staring at Rhodey’s legs, and Rhodey is distinctly reminded of their first meeting, in the days of MIT, it was like seeing a self-destructive college kid giving up. An abyss of emotion.

“It’s not your fault.” It’s not what he wants to say but he is unfortunately intimate with exactly how Tony thinks, always trying to bring the blame onto himself even when he is at no fault of his own, he would rather believe that he is the one who is messed up than admit the faults of the other party.

Rhodey wants to drag Steve Rogers by the hair and kick his teeth in, he wants to make him _understand_ how fucked up what he did was. Tony hasn’t told him in depth what happened, but Rhodey can guess as much from the super soldier induced beating that it wasn’t good.

Tony’s lips twist into a wry, wistful smile, “If only-”

“I swear to god if you finish that sentence I am going to sell each and everyone of your suits to Hammer from his prison cell.” Rhodey pauses, internally delighting at the small grin that happens across Tony’s face. “Rogers was out of line, it doesn’t matter what you _think_ you did, I know you Tones, and you always try to do the right thing, no matter the cost. Either way, nothing warrants exactly what he did to you.”

Tony swallows audibly, before steeling himself, “He killed my parents… I know it wasn’t _him,_ but in the moment, all I could hear was my mother begging for her life from someone she thought she knew…”

“Oh Tony…” Rhodey says, the sadness and anger threatening to consume him whole, how _dare_ Rogers do this to his friend, he stuffs the emotions down and opens his arms, “Come on, give mama bear a hug.”

Tony all but crumpled into his arms, and if Rhodey feels a wet patch on his shoulder, then he’s not going to say anything about it.

Eventually, they depart embrace and Rhodey resolutely ignores the puffy eyes of his best friend in the world. “Look, we’re going to go on a holiday, you and I, you deserve it, Pepper can run the company for a few days and I don’t have anything better to do.”

Tony wipes at his eyes for a few moments, “Okay fine, but I vote we just go to the Malibu house, it’s been renovated a little, and that way I can still help Pepper out. And, I made some upgrades, it now has a spa.” He waggles his eyebrows, Rhodey chuckles.

“Get me some coconut water with the little umbrellas and you’ve got yourself a deal.”

Tony smirks, “Come on sugar plum, coconut water?”

“Hey, it tastes fantastic. And don’t give me that crap, you like coconut water when it’s in Malibu.” Rhodey crosses his arms.

“That’s because you can mix it with pineapple juice or whatever, which tastes _way_ better than just plain coconut. And secondly, it’s gotta be just as sweet as me.” Tony winks and Rhodey fights the belly laugh that threatens to spill out of his mouth, his twitching smirk belies his true feelings though.

“You’re terrible.”

“I’m the best.”

“Okay, maybe you are.”

“I’ll have the jet ready in the morning, don’t worry sweetums, I will have your bag packed for you, consisting only of g-strings and Hawaiian shirts.” Sadly, Rhodey can’t tell whether he’s joking or not.

“If you I’m going to turn your spa from a scene to a crime scene.”

“Okay, okay, I’ll add a sun dress in there, just for you.”

“Come on man, don’t do me that dirty.” Tony’s grin simply widens.

Rhodey sighs, he guesses he’s going to have to get used to g-strings.

(In the end, the spa is far more relaxing than Rhodey could have ever hoped, despite the iron man suit helping him in and out of the tub, the look on Tony’s face when he realised that Rhodey had slipped coconut water to him rather than Malibu was worth every g-string he unfortunately found in his room.

And maybe his room gets filled with sand and turned into a beach, maybe he gets soaked in silly string, maybe his sugar gets swapped out for bi-carb soda, at the end of the day, Rhodey knows that the pair will be okay.)


End file.
